Enough about the bad, what was GOOD abot the Soviet Union?

[RZM]

99. There was a lot of social mobility in the early years, notably during the Five Year Plans

Living standards went down because consumer goods were not emphasized (consumer goods were a serious problem area all the way until the collapse). But a lot of people improved their stations during this period. This was perhaps the main reason why Khrushchev remained 100 percent committed to the system his entire life. He received engineering training and was able to eventually enter politics and lead the country. Somebody of his background and means would never have been able to do that before.

By the way, when you look deeper at health care in the Soviet Union, you see a lot of serious flaws. Yes there were a lot of doctors, but quite a few were poorly trained. And facilities were abominable as well. I forget the exact stats, but as late as the 1970s-80s, close to half of Soviet doctors had never examined an x-ray. I believe roughly 1/4 of Soviet hospitals did not have running water.

This is a good book that examines postwar life in the USSR. It contains a lot of interesting statistics, including those on the health care system.

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Empires-History-Soviet-1945-1991/dp/0192803190/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330919913&sr=8-1